Verse 3: “What will you do in the day of visitation? And in the desolation which will come from a distance? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory?”

Visitation: This is a word that speaks about God getting involved in society – God coming into a situation. When God gets involved, He is all in – totally involved in either delivering people or punishing them. The implication, here, is that God is going to visit them for judgment.

Desolation: In Hebrew this is the same word that is translated ‘holocaust’. This is a disastrous and catastrophic event.

Glory: Referring to their treasured possessions. They had impoverished people and now they were going to be impoverished (Matthew 7:2).

Verse 4: “Without Me they shall bow down among the prisoners, and in the midst of the dead they shall fall. Nevertheless, His anger was not turned away, but still His hand is outstretched.”

Bow down: Bend the knee. They were going to be brought into submission.

Prisoners: They were going to become prisoners.

In the midst of the dead they shall fall: When God visited His people (in order to put things back into their rightful order) many of them would be taken prisoners and many of them would die. This is the consequence of exploiting others, taking advantage of those who have no voice within a society. When we are unkind to others, we are inviting God’s judgment into our lives.

Nevertheless, His anger was not turned away, but still His hand is outstretched: This is the fourth time that this phrase has been repeated in the past two chapters.

Still His hand is outstretched: This is good news. Although God will not withdraw from this time of judgment upon His people, He still gives them an opportunity to repent.

Note: This next section of Isaiah deals with how God is going to punish the people – this ‘day of catastrophe’.

Verse 5: “Woe because of Assyria, the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hand is My wrath.”

Woe: How awful it will be if there is no change.

Assyria: Assyria was the vessel that God used to mete out His judgment to the Northern kingdom (Israel). Babylon was the vessel God used to mete out His judgment on the Southern kingdom (Judah).

Verse 6: “I will send him against a hypocritical nation; and against the people of My wrath I will command him to plunder the plunder and to take the spoil; to trample them like clay in the streets.”

Nation: Written in the singular; this is a hermenutical clue that this is a reference to Israel.

Trample them like clay: The word translated ‘clay’ or ‘mire’ here is a word for the material that makes up the street – whether it be stone, brick, mud, etc. When we walk on a street, we trample on it without much thought to the material that makes it up. This is the image
being used here.

In the same way that we trample on the street, without any second thought, so to would God allow the Assyrians to trample the Northern kingdom – like it was just clay beneath their feet.

Verse 7: “And he did not thus imagine, nor does his heart think thusly; But it is in his heart to destroy and cut down nations, and not a few.”

He: Referring to the Assyrians.

He did not thus imagine, nor does his heart think thusly: Just because God uses someone does not mean that He is pleased with them. The fact that He uses them is not an affirmation that what they are doing is right or proper. Although the Assyrians were God’s
vessels, to carry out His judgment, they did not have any thought or imagination that they were doing it out of obedience to God. In his heart to destroy and cut down: Obedience or submission to God was not Assyria’s motivation. Their hearts were bent on destruction. The goal of Assyria was to expand their empire and to take control of many nations. They achieved this through anger and hatred
for the nations (including Israel) that they conquered.